


Are You Real?

by EmbersAtDusk



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen, One Shot, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Post-Spider-Man: Far From Home, Short, Spider-Man: Far From Home (Movie), Spider-Man: Far From Home (Movie) Spoilers, Tags Are Hard, The author frequently gets writer's block, Time Travel, Typos, it will probably take over a month for an update of less than 1k words, sorry - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-03
Updated: 2019-10-07
Packaged: 2020-06-03 13:21:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19464856
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmbersAtDusk/pseuds/EmbersAtDusk
Summary: After defeating Mysterio, Peter somehow time travels to the aftermath of the ferry incident, where he is being confronted by Tony. He tells him everything, and things seem to turn out alright.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I watched FFH and just had to write this. I miss Tony too much and there were too many reminders of him in the movie and I needed Peter to be able to talk to Tony. I also like time travel fics. There are also extremely fee FFH fanfics out right now, and I am desperate, so that means others are desperate, so I will feed your desperation with this short fanfic.  
> ⊂((・▽・))⊃

* * *

"-and if you're nothing without this suit, you shouldn't have it." Tony finished saying. He was mad - Peter had nearly gotten himself and all the people on the ferry killed. It was reckless and stupid.

Peter tensed - not in the way that Tony would have expected him to. He started to grip the ledge, feeling the concrete underneath his hands. _An illusion can't create that, right?_ He let out a labored breath he didn't realize he was keeping in. His eyes started tearing up.

"Tell me something only you would know about me."

Tony stared at Peter, confused. "What?" He asked. What was up with the sudden change of attitude?

"Just do it," Peter said, on the verge of sobbing. "Oh god, if this isn't real," he whispered to himself, "then I underestimated how cruel Mysterio could be." He thought Tony wouldn't hear, but he did.

"Peter, who is Mysterio?" He asked. 

Peter looked up sharply. "Just answer my question, please."

Tony frowned. "Ok…" he started. "On the day I met you, you told me that when you can do the things that you can, but you don't, then the bad things happen because of you. Very deep and meaningful. Can you tell me what's going on now?"

Peter lets out a sob, and launches himself into an uneasy Tony's arms. Tony, confused, asks "What's… all this about, kid?"

Peter hugs him tight, not wanting to let go, but he knew must. At this point in time, they didn't have too good of a relationship. It wasn't like in the final battle against Thanos, where Tony had hugged Peter desperately. Here, he was confused, and needed an explanation.

"Well, if all of this is real," explained Peter, "Then I think… I think I time traveled."

Tony blinked. Then he blinked again. Then he laughed. " _Time travel?_ " He laughs like a maniac. "Kid, are you trying to get out of this? Because I'm taking your suit either way."

Peter's face turned white. "Well, if I have to stick to this timeline like it was before - which Dr. Strange would probably advise if he were here -" Tony looked confused. "- oh yeah, since I'm here I might as well contact him. Oh, and a _lot_ of bad things happen in the future." He looks at his feet, and whispers "You die."

Oh. Oh. If Peter was telling the truth… Tony now knew why Peter had hugged him so tightly.

"That's not the only bad thing that happens, though. I don't really want to talk about most of it right now," Peter says, "but in the near future is the least traumatizing stuff I've been through. You take my suit, I try to live normally, until I find out my Homecoming date's dad is the Vulture. He then threatens me at gunpoint in their car, and I ditch my date at Homecoming to chase after him. He tricks me, traps me under a building. I lift it off myself." Tony is staring, wide-eyed. "Oh yeah, this happens on moving day. He hijacks your plane and I crash it on the outside on Coney Island. His suit explodes and I save him and web him up. Then I leave." He shrugged. "Pleasant memories. I would give anything to to back…" Peter blinked, realizing where he was. "Oh wait… I am back…"

Tony is weirded out by all of this. If this is the _least_ traumatic thing Peter has been through, then Tony is scared to hear the rest. He asks anyway. "Peter, what's the most traumatic thing that has happened to you?"

Peter, who has been playing with his hands, freezes. Slowly, he murmurs "Your death."

Tony nodded slowly. _Explain_. 

"It was a giant battle - against this guy, Thanos. You'd killed him before, but apparently be you invented time travel -" Tony was surprised. Sure, he was a genius, but _time travel?_ "-and apparently that's how you saved everyone. Before, Thanos killed half the universe. I would say that's the second most traumatic thing I've been through…" he sighed, his eyes getting wetter. "We were on an alien planet, with some friendly aliens and Dr. Strange, this wizard guy I mentioned earlier."

"Wizard guy?"

"Yeah, you called him a wizard, despite his objections." Peter laughed sadly. "God, I feel like I'm talking to a ghost."

He continued. "We lost. You were stabbed. Thanos got what he wanted, and left. 10 minutes later, everyone started turning to dust, except you and this blue alien." He looked at his hands, to ensure they weren't there, weren't turning to dust anymore. "I died in your arms." He sobbed, bringing his hands up to his face. 

Tony, not quite sure what to do, brings Peter into a hug. The hug is returned. This Peter is much more mature than the Peter he was talking to a few minutes ago - he's been through a lot more.

"5 years," Peter whispered. "That's how long it took you to bring us back. Straight to battle again for me. Then… at the end… you died. Sacrificed yourself. You saved us all." Peter sobbed into Tony's shirt, "but it didn't matter much to me, because you were gone, but you're her now, unless Mysterio knows, oh god," he pulled away from the hug, a Panic attack starting. "What if he knows things about me? What if this isn't real? Just to find my weaknesses like he used it to get information out of me -" he gasped.

"Peter," Tony said, "breathe in. Count to 3. 1, 2, 3." Peter repeated numbly. "5 things you can see?"

"If doesn't matter what I see, it could all be an illusion," he mumbled. 

"Ok, 3 things you can feel."

"The ground… my suit…" Peter paused. "You." His breathing started to even. "Does EDITH exist yet?"

Tony nodded slowly. This was confirmation that Peter was from the future - EDITH was a top secret project he was working on in case something happened to him. Nobody knew about it - not even Pepper. 

"Peter," Tony spoke slowly, "Who is Mysterio?"

Peter paled. "He used to work for you. Helped create BARF. And seriously? BARF?" Peter cringed, and Tony laughed. "He has these drones that used that technology. Made these things called elementals, and made it look like he took them down." Peter sat down, sighing, and slumped. "I messed up, Tony. So much worse than the ferry. My friends nearly died, a ton of people in London nearly died, I nearly died -" he choked out a sob. "I'm such an idiot," he whispered.

Tony sighed, and sat down next to Peter. "Ok, what happened?" Peter looked up, his eyes red. "What did you do? Come on, it can't be that bad."

"It's worse than bad," Peter managed to get out. "I'm just - I'm scared you'll be disappointed in me."

Tony took a second to think. "Did you fix the problem?" 

Peter nodded. "Yeah. Everything is fine now, but it shouldn't have been bad in the first place. I'm such an idiot -" he facepalmed, but was interrupted by Tony. 

"Just tell me. I won't be disappointed in you, ok?"

Peter sighed. "Ok," he said. "So you left this note with EDITH. I thought you wanted me to pick the next Iron Man - I could never live up to you -" Tony cringed, "- and I was fooled by Mysterio. At first, he reminded me of you, in a way, so I sort of gave her to Mysterio?"

Tony sighed. "Don't trust everyone you meet, kid."

Peter frowned. "Nick Fury trusted him! He's, like, the most suspicious person on the planet!"

Tony laughed, but he was concerned. _Nick Fury_ trusted this guy? He must have been quite the illusionist. 

"Well, I went to Germany to tell Nick Fury about Mysterio after I found out about him. I'm not even sure if he was real or not - but it turned out the HQ there was all an illusion. Mysterio put me through hell, and I got run over by a train."

Tony gasped - he couldn't help it. Peter got _run over by a train?_ "I got into the train and passed out. Winded up in the Netherlands. I called Happy, be picked me up. I created a new suit." Peter smiled sadly, and Tony put an arm around Peter. Peter leaned into Tony. "I created a new suit," he mumbled. "Went to London. Had a big fight. Took down the drones. Oh, and I have this sense - May and Happy keep referring to it as my 'Peter tingle' -" Tony laughed, "- and it tells me where danger is. I used it to take down the drones creating the illisions, and Mysterio. Then… he died…"

Peter looked sad. Why did Peter look sad? He took down someone who was causing a lot of trouble. They wouldn't be causing any more - oh. _Oh._ "Your first kill?"

Peter nodded sadly. "After that, everything was fine. For a week."

Tony frowned. "I went on a date with my MJ…" Tony smiled, "but it turned out that Mysterio had leaked an edited video out to the public. He framed me, and.. and…"

Peter sniffled. "He revealed my identity."

Tony gasped. "Now that is something we will avoid. For sure. This Mysterio will be taken care of before he can do any of this, right?"

Peter nodded. "Well that's it. Here I am."

Tony stood up. Peter looked at him. "Well, what do you say we go to the Avengers Compound?"

Peter was wide-eyed and confused. "The Avengers Compound? But…" Realization passed through him. "Oh yeah, it's 2017! It's not destroyed yet."

Destroyed? "I'm, Peter, when did it get destroyed?"

Peter took a second to think. "2023," he answered. Tony sighed in relief - that would be a while.

"Do you think I'm stuck here?" Peter whispered. "I mean, I'm really glad to see you - it's just, all that happened… I don't want to go through it again."

Tony thought back to Afghanistan. He would love to see Yinsen again, sure - but he would not want to spend 3 months trapped in that cave again. What Peter went through must be 10 times worse…

"Can you stick to the outside of my suit?" Tony asked.

Peter laughed. "Are you kidding? I stuck to the outside of a plane while Happy flew straight up, then fell off on _purpose_." 

Tony just gaped. "Ok, Peter… hold on." He got in the suit, and Peter held on. He flew them to the Compound. Peter was glad to have Tony back.


	2. The Chapter Where Peter Does Something Other Than Sit Around and Weep to Tony

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The chapter in which Peter meets Vision and decides he must contact Dr. Strange and the other Avengers but doesn't actually do it yet

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did it. I stumbled out of my writer's block. I think I am going to stumble back into it. I originally intended for this to be a one-shot, but saw how many people liked it, and thought "Hmm, maybe I'll write another chapter." So I changed the 1/1 chapters to 1/?, and proceeded to remain silent for over a month. Then, yesterday, I decided to look at the statistics and saw that over 200 people were subscribed... This gave me some inspiration and I decided to update. It's short but it's something! Also an FYI, this is probably littered with typos. It isn't for school or anything so I didn't bother to edit it

When they arrived at the Avengers Compound, Peter was filled with nostalgia. Tony landed in the yard, and Peter hopped off while Tony exited his suit. 

"It's exactly like I remember it," he whispered solemnly. "Oh, and have you started to work on the Iron Spider yet?"

Here was more proof for Tony that Peter was a time traveler. "Yeah, actually, but it's not quite complete yet."

"Ok, I'm fine with my current suit!" Peter perked up as they started walking into the building. "That suit is just a bit too OP for normal-day use. I mean, in space, it's  _ great _ ! On patrol? Definitely too OP."

Tony looked slightly confused. "OP? What does OP mean?"

Peter snorted. "Oh my god, I forgot how old you are!" 

Tony pretended to look offended, putting a hand over his heart and gasping "Me? Old?"

Peter started laughing. "Yes! Anyways, OP means overpowered."

Tony nods. "Ok, that makes sense."

Peter sighs, becoming sad. "Yeah, you really outdid yourself…" he stops walking and gives Tony a bit hug. Surprised, Tony was tense at first but slowly started hugging him back. "I really missed you," Peter whispered, his head on Tony's shoulder. 

"I have no doubt," Tony replied, holding Peter tightly in his arms. He could tell that it was making him feel safe and secure - and he felt his heart warm knowing that Peter felt this way because of him.

"Um, Mr. Stark? Who is this?" Vision interrupted, startling both Tony and Peter. They quickly pulled away from each other. Unlike Tony expected, Peter didn't blush - he grew pale, and started staring at the stone in Vision's forehead. 

"I-I'm Peter P-Parker," he stuttered, reaching a hand out. Vision shook it. "Spider-Man." He kept on looking at Vision up and down, his eyes wide, looking like he was seeing a ghost.

Maybe Vision had died. That was probably it. Tony didn't want to think about this - Vision was currently one of the only official Avengers left.

"Spiderling here is apparently from the future," Tony said. Peter had his eyes locked on the stone. "A lot of bad shit went down, apparently."

Vision looked a mix of confused and interested. "You're from the future?" He asked Peter. "How far into the future?"

"2024," Peter gets out. "I think my consciousness somehow got transported to now - unless - no, that's impossible they were all destroyed…" he started muttering to himself.

"Hey Mr. Stark, I need to go to the city," he looked up suddenly. 

"Um, why?" Tony asked. "And what was destroyed?"

If possible, Peter's face became even paler. "The Infinity Stones," he whispered. "Six of them exist. Space, time, reality, mind, soul, and power. Two of them are on Earth, which makes it a big target." Once again, he looked at the stone in Vision's forehead. "I'm staring at one of them right now."

Vision's hand brushed against the stone. "Which one is it?" He asked quietly.

"The mind stone," he whispered back. "The Time stone is with a wizard who lives in the city. He'll probably be able to explain what happened to me, and help in defeating Thanos before he becomes a threat."

"Thanos?" Questioned Vision. 

"He killed half the universe."

The room was silent. "How?" asked Vision.

"Yeah, I've been wondering that myself," Tony added. 

Peter sighed. "Thanos collected all the stones. Once he has them all, it only took a snap of his fingers for him to kill everyone." 

Tony gasped. “That was really all it took?”

Peter sighed. “Sadly.”

“And why, exactly, do you need to go into the city again?” Vision asked. “A wizard?”

Peter nodded. “Yeah, he has the time stone. He could help us.”

Tony sighed. “And we just got to the compound… can’t we rest, kid?”

Peter looked like he would be uncomfortable doing so. “I guess.. But I really want to start doing this as soon as possible. We only have a little over a year until he comes…” His face paled. “Shit.”

“What?” Tony asked, starting to get worried. 

“This… this is an Avengers level threat.” Peter smirked, thinking back to Beck. That wasn’t truly an Avengers level threat - he had stopped it without the help of any other Avengers. Now this? Space stuff?  _ This  _ was an Avengers level threat. An an Avengers level threat… called for all the Avengers.

“You need to call him.”


	3. Steve Gets a Phone Call

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I reread the first two chapters and immediately knew what I wanted to write for the 3rd one. Sorry, but the 4th one will probably take a while because I just write these when I feel like it, and I have less time to write now anyways because I started school. Also, I wrote this on my laptop using Grammarly, so there should be a lot less spelling and grammar errors than before.

When Steve had sent Tony the flip-phone in the mail 3 months ago, he hadn’t expected to get a call at all, much less within less than a year. He knew Tony - he hadn’t yet been forgiven for keeping the fact that Bucky had killed Tony’s parents a secret yet. What had happened that made the situation so dire that Tony would call him?

“Hello?” he asked. “Tony?” He heard a sigh on the other end.

“Hey Rogers,” grumbled Tony. “Something happened - or rather,  _ will  _ happen. Something horrible. And we need the Avengers to fight it - all of them.”

Steve was confused. What did Tony mean? How could he know what would happen? All Steve knew that stranger things had happened to them before, and that Tony wouldn’t be calling unless he needed help.

“What happened, Tony?” Steve voiced his concern. “Why do we need the Avengers for this?”

Tony sighed. “Ok Rogers, I’ll tell you but don’t ask me to repeat myself. So you remember the Spider kid from Germany?”

Steve found himself nodding before he realized that Tony couldn’t see him over the phone. “Uh, yeah,” he said awkwardly.

“Well, apparently he time traveled,” Tony said as if it were worth a grain of salt. 

Steve let that sink in. The Spider kid… the one he fought in Germany… time-traveled? “What does this have to do with the others and me?” Steve asked, confused. 

“Well, he sort of came from a post-apocalyptic future where a ton of us died.” Tony’s breath was shaking - Steve could tell that he was trying to remain calm, trying to hold up a facade, but it wasn’t working. Steve knew him too well. This was no laughing matter.

In the background of the phone call, Steve heard someone shout something towards Tony. He was pretty sure they said, “We were only dead for 5 years, not for eternity, but yeah, it was pretty bad.” Spider-Man, presumably. 

“What do you need me to do?” Steve asked, his tone serious. 

“Gather the others,” Tony said. “We’ll need all the help we can get. Spidey says he knew people in the future who can help now - a wizard who will be able to locate Thor and some other, ‘epic dudes’. Spidey’s words, not mine.” Steve heard Spider-Man in the background say “One of them was  _ not  _ epic! He thought Footloose was the greatest movie of all time!” 

Tony sighed. Steve sighed. “I’ll go get the others,” he started. “And are you sure you want me to bring  _ everyone,  _ Tony?” They both knew who he was referencing - Bucky. Steve knew for sure that Tony hadn’t forgiven Steve yet - there was no way in hell that Tony had forgiven Bucky. 

Tony took a deep breath. “We need everyone we can get. Barnes has to come, Steve, whether I like it or not.” He said Bucky’s name with bitter in his voice, but there was also resolution. Tony had started to accept what had happened, despite being tenacious about it. He hadn’t forgiven Steve and Bucky - not by a long shot - but he was starting to accept that it had happened, and hopefully would accept that it wasn’t Bucky’s fault.

“Ok. I’ll see you in… a week?” Steve asked.

“Yeah,” replied Tony. “A week. Sure. I’ll have the compound prepared for you guys. I promise everything will be elucidated. Right now, it’s all ineffable.”   
  
“Ok. We’ll be there. Bye.” Steve hung up the phone. 

“On your left,” said a voice to Steve’s left. 

Steve sighed. “Hey, Sam. Congrats, you finally snook up on me.”

“Hey, what’s with the long face?” Sam asked. “Does it have to do with who you were on the phone with?”

Steve sighed. “Yeah. It was Tony.” 

“Oh, I am  _ not  _ dealing with that shit right now, Steve!” he shouted, flailing his hands in the air, “and neither are you. Was he trying to get you to turn us all in?”

Steve shook his head. “No. It is a million times worse.”

“How could it be…” Sam’s eyes widened. “Oh.”

“Yeah,  _ oh _ ,” Steve replied. “Apparently that spider kid from the airport time traveled from an apocalyptic future or something. I’ve seen too much weird shit to not believe this - especially since it warranted a call from Tony.”

“And he wants the Avengers to assemble?” Sam asked softly. Steve nodded sadly. “Then that’s what we will do, especially if the world is at stake.” Sam patted Steve on the back. 

“Now…” Steve began, “Where are the others?”

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> I hope it's ok, I didn't really edit it.


End file.
